Support Noah Gabay's Bar Mitzvah Project
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Hello, my name is Noah Gabay, and I am 12 years old. I am currently preparing for my bar mitzvah, and as part of that process, I am raising money for the construction of the Heritage Center in Whitwell, Tennessee. You may wonder, why Whitwell, TN?
Many people are not aware of the Children's Holocaust Museum located in Whitwell, but I have been fortunate to learn about it through the Paperclips Project.
What is the Paperclips Project?
In 1998, Linda M. Hooper, the principal of Whitwell Middle School, asked Assistant Principal David Smith to find a voluntary after-school project to teach the children about tolerance. They began a Holocaust education program, but the students were overwhelmed by the massive scale of the Holocaust. They asked if they could collect something to represent the lives that were lost during that time. They were informed that if they could find something related to the Holocaust or World War II, they could proceed. Through their research, they discovered that Norwegians wore paper clips on their lapels during World War II as a silent protest against Nazi occupation. The students decided to collect 6,000,000 paper clips to symbolize the estimated 6,000,000 Jews who were killed between 1939 and 1945 under the Nazi regime.
What began in 1998 as a simple 8th-grade project to study other cultures evolved into a movement that gained worldwide attention. To date, over 30 million paper clips have been collected. An award-winning documentary film about the project, titled "Paper Clips," was released in 2004.
Once all the paper clips were collected, a space was needed to house them. The Children's Holocaust Memorial now consists of an authentic German transport car surrounded by a small garden. The railcar is filled with 11 million paper clips—6 million for the murdered Jews and 5 million for Roma, Catholics, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other persecuted groups. The monument was unveiled on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, November 9, 2001.
What is truly remarkable about this is that the community of Whitwell is not a Jewish community. Yet, in a world filled with hate, Whitwell stands as a place of love and understanding. Currently, the Children's Holocaust Memorial is located at the school in Whitwell, where 8th graders study the Holocaust and serve as tour guides at the museum.
This brings me to the reason I am raising money.
Unfortunately, there are security concerns because the Memorial is located at the school, and the visiting hours are limited to when students are not in school. The community is raising funds to build the Whitwell Heritage Center to ensure that this fantastic museum can be housed in a safer location, allowing more people to visit and learn about this crucial piece of history. I hope to contribute to reaching this goal so that future generations can learn and experience this important part of our past.
I will be going to Whitwell with the Philadelphia Friends of the Paperclips Project in the 8th grade, and I look forward to being a small part of this significant project.
Organizer
Noah Gabay
Organizer
Gladwyne, PA